HMM: Congress to Probe Leaks After New Strzok/Page Texts Indicate Prior Knowledge of News Articles.

WOW: Saudi Arabia arrests 11 princes who protested suspension of government payments.

Crown Prince bin Salman is not screwing around.

SPENGLER: Who are you going to believe — Michael Wolff, or your own eyes?

FINALLY: With ingestible pill, you can track fart development in real time on your phone.

Please keep this technology out of the hands of my young sons, who would undoubtedly ingest several of these along with Pop Rocks and a two-liter bottle of Coke.

THEY ALSO LEAD IN LEFTY ECONOMICS: Washington and California Lead U.S. in Bigfoot Sightings.

CIVIL SOCIETY: Racist goons are targeting the FCC chief — and his family.

The source of great consternation on the left is the FCC’s decision to scrap an Obama-era rule implemented in 2015 deemed “net neutrality.” The end of net neutrality will allow internet service providers to, if they choose, privilege the content of providers that they own or support.

Over this, Pai has been the target of a campaign of harassment that amounts to a national scandal.

HBO host John Oliver was among the first mainstream cultural figures to organize a net-neutrality campaign, which he dubbed “Go FCC Yourself.” He encouraged followers to bombard the FCC’s website with comments supporting the regulation, and so they did.

Those comments were peppered with claims that Pai was a pedophile, a “dirty, sneaky Indian” who should self-deport and reminders that anonymous online hordes maintain the “power to murder Ajit Pai and his family.” Oliver was eventually compelled to release a video urging his followers to dial back the racism and death threats.

This episode would prove to be just the beginning of Pai’s ordeal. By May of last year, Pai’s tormentors began a campaign to ensure that the FCC chairman could enjoy no peace — not even in his own home.

If this were happening to a Democrat appointee, it would be the lede story, everywhere, all the time.

OOPS: Microsoft halts some AMD chip Meltdown patches after PCs freeze.

STUDY: The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco.

The whole thing is behind the SSRN paywall, but maybe you’ll find it worth your $5.

Here’s the summary:

We exploit quasi-experimental variation in assignment of rent control to study its impacts on tenants, landlords, and the overall rental market. Leveraging new data tracking individuals’ migration, we find rent control increased renters’ probabilities of staying at their addresses by nearly 20%. Landlords treated by rent control reduced rental housing supply by 15%, causing a 5.1% city-wide rent increase. Using a dynamic, neighborhood choice model, we find rent control offered large benefits to covered tenants.

Unexpectedly.

TYLER O’NEIL: If it’s politics without policy, Oprah! wins.

FRENEMIES: Huawei, Seen as Possible Spy Threat, Boomed Despite U.S. Warnings. “Chinese telecom giant has gobbled up huge global market share; now Washington is warning anew about alleged spy threat as U.S. telecoms embark on $275 billion 5G network build-out.”

Since 2012, Huawei has expanded to 170 countries from 140, and now claims 45 of the world’s 50 biggest wireless carriers as customers. Huawei, which also runs a popular smartphone brand, made $75 billion overall in 2016. About $26 billion came from its telecom equipment and software business, making it the leader in the $126 billion-a-year global market, according to research-firm IHS Markit Ltd.

Huawei’s dominance is again stoking fears among Washington security and intelligence experts, who worry major U.S. carriers might be tempted to turn to Huawei.

Last month, members of the Senate and House intelligence committees sent a letter asking the Federal Communications Commission to review any relationship with Huawei and requested that the FCC get briefed on the security concerns raised in 2012. The letter also raised concerns about Huawei’s growing smartphone business, now the world’s No. 3 brand behind Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc.

It feels a bit like buying satellite telecom equipment from the Soviets in the early ’80s.

PHILIP H. DEVOE: President Oprah’s Pseudoscience.

On June 22, 2011, James Arthur Ray was found guilty of negligent homicide after three attendees of his “Spiritual Warrior” retreat died. That only three died — 18 others were injured — is nothing short of a miracle: In what Ray called a traditional Native American sweat-lodge ceremony, participants were first subjected to 36 hours of fasting in the Arizona desert, with nothing but a sleeping bag for company, and then required to participate in a ritual inside a 200-degree lodge. Ray called this a “heat endurance” exercise, but a better description would be a $10,000 life-threatening scam.

Twice in 2006, Ray was a guest of the Oprah Winfrey show. Twice, she endorsed his outré New Age thinking. In an interview with The Verge, the mother of retreat victim Kirby Brown revealed that Ray’s appearance on Oprah helped quell concerns her daughter felt about becoming a follower of Ray’s methods. If Oprah endorsed it, her daughter assumed, it must be safe. Alas, it seems the opposite is true. If Oprah endorses it, odds are it’s pseudoscience.

But probably no less disassociated from reality than endorsing Oprah for President.

I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING: David Brooks Says Anti-Trump Movement Is Getting ‘Dumber,’ Becoming a ‘Smug Fairy Tale.’

BUT THE NARRATIVE! Polar bears have not been driven to the brink of extinction by climate change, they are thriving.

As hard as they may be to get right, predictions about the future are the core of the field that goes by the name of “climate science.” Because of predictions about the future by climate scientists, everybody knows that human burning of fossil fuels will cause world temperatures to increase by multiple degrees over the coming century, leading to a series of calamities ranging from sea level rise to droughts to floods to hurricane and tornadoes. After all, the climate scientists have sophisticated computer models! If you don’t believe the predictions of the models, you must be a “science denier.” The predictions of significantly rising temperatures are so certain that you are to be required by government coercion (unless President Trump can head it off) to dramatically reduce your use of fossil fuels and restrict your lifestyle.

You and I are not going to be around in 2100 to see if any of these predictions about the future have come true. But meanwhile the climate alarm crowd obliges us with shorter term predictions to help us get some handle on how reliable they are. Unfortunately, nobody seems to be doing a very good job of keeping track of these predictions and seeing how they are turning out. So once again it falls to the Manhattan Contrarian to do some leg work.

Read the whole, embarrassing thing.

NARRATOR: IT WASN’T AT ALL CURIOUS. A Curious Thing Happened When Ontario Hiked Minimum Wages By Over 20%.

Employees at the Tim Hortons locations owned by the children of the co-founders of the franchise say they have reduced employee benefits and cut back paid breaks to help offset Ontario’s $2.40 jump in hourly minimum wage.

Jeri Horton-Joyce and Ron Joyce Jr. wrote a letter to employees at their two Tim Hortons restaurants in Cobourg, Ont., that those who want to continue receiving dental and health benefits will have to pay a portion of the plan’s costs themselves. Those working at the restaurant for more than five years will have to pay half, while those working from more than six months to five years will pay 75 per cent.

Employee breaks will also no longer be compensated, the letter dated December 2017 read. For example, those working nine-hour shifts will be paid for eight hours and 20 minutes, while those on three-hour blocks will be paid for two hours and 45 minutes.

“We apologize for these changes,” the letter, widely circulated on social media, read. “Once the costs of the future are better known we may bring back some or all of the benefits we have had to remove.”

At least they didn’t lose their jobs to robots — yet.

WITH BOMBAST AND TO THE SOUND OF HEADS EXPLODING? How Trump Can Cut Aid to a Horrible U.N. Program.

GOING GARBANZO FOR PEACE: Israeli and Palestinian Comedians Think Hummus Can Help Bring Peace to the Middle East.

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 1706: Lois Lerner, Liberty, And Bureaucracy.

BRACE YOURSELVES: What to Expect from the Pentagon’s First-Ever Audit.

Hopefully its findings will also expose some of the waste, fraud, and abuse that Congress cites as problematic. The Department of Defense is a government agency and bureaucracy—a highly respected and exalted institution—but prone to the same inefficiencies that plague the EPA and Department of Interior, for example. Until now, the DOD successfully evaded opening its books, with critics citing concerns that such scrutiny could expose national-security secrets. Others warn that an audit could undermine our troops by compelling them to divert attention away from core missions.

The first argument—that an audit could expose sensitive material—is weak. Congress already publicly debates the defense budget down to the line item level on a near-constant basis. Those of us outside of the bureaucracy are also invited to critique and contribute to that debate. What none of us currently know, however, is the other half of the equation. When taxpayer dollars are appropriated for a particular program, how are those dollars actually spent, and what is our return on investment? These answers should help policymakers increase national security, not compromise it.

The second argument assumes that soldiers and civil servants shouldn’t bear the burden of fiscal responsibility because they’re too busy safeguarding our liberties. Granted, most people working in government don’t think they should be exempted from oversight in that way—they try to go about their jobs in the most efficient way possible. It is telling that Comptroller Norquist is treating the audit as an opportunity to show that, by and large, the billions the DOD spends every year is spent wisely. The only way you get that assurance is with a comprehensive audit of the accounts.

The military does an amazing job, but we don’t get nearly as much defense as we pay for.

FASTER? PLEASE! Panasonic promises 20 times faster airplane Wi-Fi.

Panasonic announced that its third generation of satellite-based airborne connectivity will be 20 times faster than previous versions of bringing you Internet connectivity in the sky.

Panasonic North America CEO Tom Gebhardt made the announcement at the Japanese electronics company’s press event at CES 2018, the big tech trade show this week in Las Vegas.

“Our third-generation communication network is a step function change,” Gebhardt said.

The airlines Southwest and United will start installing the new system this quarter.

“It will greatly improve connectivity, and open the possibility of video streaming in the sky,” Gebhardt said.

Inflight Wifi is a great option, but sometimes it’s better to leave your laptop/tablet/phone in your bag and pull out the Kindle instead.

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: President OPRAH! Fusion GPS Continuing Trump Work and Much, Much More.

TIME: How Oprah Could Beat Donald Trump at His Own Game in 2020.

Based on the response to Winfrey’s speech on Sunday, she could easily command entire news cycles with a mix of TV appearances and public events, as Trump did in 2016, earning what MediaQuant estimated was $4.6 billion in free air time.

She would be entering a crowded Democratic field that will likely include a mix of former politicians, up-and-comers who aren’t well known nationally yet and third-tier contenders, as Trump did in 2016, winning as his opponents failed to coalesce behind a single rival.

She would have no prior record in elected office and only sporadic comments on various issues in the past, allowing her to run an aspirational campaign without releasing any detailed plans, as Trump did in 2016.

If she wanted to — and there’s no reason to believe she actually does — Winfrey could easily come from nowhere to dominate the Democratic field and upend the plans of countless strategists, Beltway insiders and party officials. Even if she didn’t win the nomination, she would exert a gravitational pull on the entire field.

The way the playing field is shaping up for 2020, a Democrat must win everything Clinton won in 2016*, plus claw back Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. That might not seem too difficult, unless one considers that if Trump continues to deliver jobs and wage increases to the white working class, then PA, MI, and WI — plus Minnesota and maybe Colorado and Nevada — will all be trending Red, not Blue.

I’m not sure that Oprah — whose natural constituency doesn’t lie far outside Hillary’s, if at all — is the candidate Hollywood thinks she is.

*Although not necessarily the popular vote, for our progressive friends who think that means something.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP: Cameron’s ‘bromance’ with Obama a myth, claims ex-adviser Steve Hilton. “Ex-PM thought Obama was narcissistic, says Steve Hilton while lambasting Fire and Fury book’s claims about Trump.”

Do tell:

Steve Hilton, one of Cameron’s closest advisers before the pair fell out over immigration and Brexit last year, made the comments during the latest instalment of his show, The Next Revolution, on Fox News.

Discussing Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury, Hilton said any claims by elitists and the establishment that Donald Trump was mentally unfit for the presidency came second to Trump’s promotion of a pro-worker, populist agenda on immigration, infrastructure, trade and the fight against China.

He went on to emphasise the shortcomings of Trump’s predecessors, adding: “My old boss, former British prime minister David Cameron, thought Obama was one of the most narcissistic, self-absorbed people he’d ever dealt with.

“Obama never listened to anyone, always thought he was smarter than every expert in the room, and treated every meeting as an opportunity to lecture everyone else. This led to real-world disasters, like Syria and the rise of Isis.”

But the real world did not matter to the elites, Hilton said. “For them, it’s all about style and tone, not substance and results. Donald Trump offends the elites aesthetically, like a piece of art that’s not to their taste.

When you allow taste to trump policy — and I’m addressing Bill Kristol directly here — you’ve elevated mere snobbery to a governing philosophy.

And you should expect the deplorables to respond accordingly.

FALLEN ANGELS: Canada’s Carbon Taxes, Other Boondoggles Add Pain to Record Cold Winter.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: Treat ‘Mental Health’ Talk Against Trump Like The Coup Attempt It Is.

Trump is unlike any previous president of the United States. Voters knew this when they chose him over Hillary Clinton. And there is nothing about Trump now that suggests his mental state is any different or worse or dangerous than when voters elected him, or when they first encountered him on gossip pages and in reality television decades ago.

To suggest otherwise is to undermine the democratic election of presidents, and to do so would be far more damaging to the country than anything Trump’s actually done. It is particularly noteworthy that members of an elite are calling for his ouster when Trump’s election was partly in response to anger at mismanagement by members of the media and political establishment.

Talk of mental health and a 25th Amendment removal, “by force if necessary,” is talk of a coup, just as it was in the TV show “24.”

This and all the Oprah talk is all you need to know about the depth and breadth of the Democratic bench.

CHARLES GASPARINO: On the economy, Trump has been crazy like a fox.

The United States had one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world — so high that companies (and jobs) were fleeing to places like Ireland. That’s why it was perfectly sane to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent as Trump just did, and presto: Corporations are announcing plans to hire more workers, and the economy, which was expected to slow after seven years of weak growth, is heating up. The markets are predicting that growth with their surge.

Likewise, regulations have been strangling businesses for years while making it difficult for banks to lend to consumers and small business. Trump went out and hired perfectly sane regulators who basically pulled the federal government’s boot off the neck of the business community.
…
An insane president would threaten a significant tax increase immediately upon taking office following a financial crisis, and then eventually impose one on individuals and small businesses still in recovery.

He’d impose job-crushing regulations on these same businesses as unemployment rose. He’d put a cumbersome mandate on businesses that upends the entire health care system just as the economy was finally turning a corner.

A really insane president would blow nearly $1 trillion on a stimulus plan with little planning and direction, wasting much of the money on boondoggles (see: Solyndra) and then laugh at the lack of “shovel ready” jobs created. He’d then try to spread his delusion to the masses, telling them to ignore historically low wage growth, anemic economic growth and the massive amount of people who dropped out of the work force because the stock market rallied, thanks in large part to the Fed printing money instead of his own fiscal policies.

Is Barack Obama crazy? No, but his post-2008 economic policies were.

I had been assured in 2009 by some very smart people that “business climate” was a myth and didn’t matter.